Putting On The Pressure

MSgt Thomas Vance USAF Ret.Published: April 10, 2014 9:02PM

Putting on the Pressure
Attorney General Eric Holder has offered to work with Congress to reschedule or de-schedule marijuana. He should be commended for his willingness to advance the issue of marijuana prohibition. Even though he has been somewhat rebuffed, we should write and encourage him to act in accordance with the 1970 Controlled Substances Act and just do it as he is allowed by his position. In that light I am starting a letter writing campaign to bury Holder in letters that will pressure him to act.
The Attorney General can be emailed at-- AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
A hard copy address is--US Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20530-0001
The following letter is a sample letter that can be used as a template to write Mr. Holder and encourage him to go ahead and act.
Sir,
I am writing you today to commend you on your offer to work with Congress to de-schedule or at least reschedule marijuana. You join a majority of Americans who favor ending the unjust, unscientific and racist policy of marijuana prohibition that has been a plague on minorities and the poor for the last 77 years.
Please do not shirk from your goal. Even if Congress fails to act you have, in accordance with the 1970 Controlled Substances Act the power to de-schedule or reschedule any drug as you see fit. There is no doubt the current schedule of marijuana, schedule1, has absolutely no bearing on either its danger or medical uses. Marijuana was made schedule1 so its prohibition could never be questioned.
As history records, the first Drug Czar, Harry J. Anslinger said marijuana should be illegal because, “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men”.
You Sir have the power to end this travesty. You Sir have the power to end 77 years of racial injustice and outright lies used to suppress those who look or think different.
Please use your power and end this injustice. Use your power and finally set things right. Use your power and your place in history to end the injustice that is marijuana prohibition. Use the power in your pen and de-schedule marijuana now!
Thank You,

If we act now and act together maybe we can convince him! Write as often as you can and spread the word!!!!

Want to leave your comments?

Twenty years ago, on Sept. 6, 1988, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's chief administrative law judge issued a landmark ruling, but don't expect any celebrations or commemorations in Washington, D.C. Our government has ignored this historic decision since the day it was issued, inflicting needless misery on millions.

Indeed, most Americans don't know it ever happened.

In response to a petition asking that marijuana be moved from Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bars medical use, to a lower schedule that would permit physician prescriptions, Judge Francis Young held extensive hearings that began in the summer of 1986. He heard from an impressive array of expert witnesses, resulting in thousands of pages of documentation.

Young laid out his findings in a detailed, 69-page ruling, walking readers through the scientific evidence. He concluded that the law didn't just permit moving marijuana to Schedule II, but required it.

"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man," he wrote. "By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care. ... The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record."

Remember, this was no pot-addled "legalizer" writing. It was the chief administrative law judge within the top federal agency responsible for enforcing our drug laws. Unfortunately, the ruling had no legal force. In legal terms, it was a recommendation, not an order that had to be followed.

And the DEA chose not to follow it. Six years after top DEA officials rejected Young's recommendation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit ruled that the agency did have the right to ignore its own administrative law judge.

Because the federal government chose to disregard the results of its own investigation, the medical marijuana controversy continues to rage today. Losing patience with the feds, 12 states have acted to permit medical use of marijuana under their state laws. If Michigan passes the medical marijuana initiative on its November ballot, that number will increase to 13, comprising roughly 1 in 4 Americans.

But while those state laws provide considerable protection for medical marijuana patients, states cannot provide an exemption from federal law. Even in the 12 states that have medical marijuana laws, patients and caregivers have been arrested, terrorized and even had their children taken away.
Meanwhile, the medical evidence continues to mount. Another federally commissioned study, this time by the Institute of Medicine, confirmed in 1999 that marijuana has legitimate medical uses.

More recently, newly published clinical trials have found that marijuana effectively relieves certain types of hard-to-treat pain, including the nerve pain that often accompanies multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Other research suggests that by relieving the nausea and vomiting often caused by the harsh drugs used to treat hepatitis C and HIV, medical marijuana can help patients stick to these challenging drug regimens -- and live.
Because our government has ignored science, needless suffering has been inflicted on millions of Americans who have benefited or could benefit from medical marijuana. In 2009, we will have a new president and a new Congress, and they should move quickly to end this sorry record of federal stonewalling.Rob Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project.

thomyv

April 11, 2014 9:58PM

He has power to end 77 years of using marijuana as a tool of suppression towards minorities and the poor and marginalized of our society. I saw a film clip of President Johnson speaking of the Civil Rights Bill in 1965. He was speaking of the children he knew living in poverty in West Texas and of the opportunity to help those who are marginalized by poverty and racism. He said, "And somehow you never forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see it's scars on the hopeful face of a young child. I never thought then in 1928, that I would be here in 1965. It never ever occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students, and to help people like them all over this country. But now I do have that chance. And I'll let you in on a secret. I mean to use it!"
I am hoping if we make him aware of the good that would be accomplished by ending this travesty of justice, and the millions of our citizens such a gesture would bring hope to, he might just do the right thing and de schedule marijuana. Put it in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Marijuana! What the heck do we have to lose by trying?

Attorney General Eric Holder has offered to work with Congress to reschedule or de-schedule marijuana.

Really? That's great news, if it's true, but I remember reading on one of the news sites (sorry, can't remember which one) that Holder was NOT going to reschedule marijuana. He said he was satisified with the way it was now.